Look closely at the photo above. These two wedding gowns seem to illustrate the era in that something is about to take place. In a fashion sense, it is the death of the bustle and the birth of a new silhouette. In socio-politics, it was the era when nations vied to take over the position of a new superpower.
War broke out eventually and culminated in the victory of the New World and a shift in social norms; women started working alongside men outside their homes and demanding equality, and the freedom movement where women demanded to break free from the shackles of long skirts and bustles.
![wedding gown in 1800s](https://media.fashonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/18062121/wedding-portrait-1880s-found-in-the-collection-of-the-state-news-photo-1584038077.jpg)
This gown for example has a full skirt that is made fuller with a hooped petticoat underneath. The garb will also have a train that is slightly longer than the casual dresses in their time. To note, the train signifies class distinction. Only the elite class wear a casual day dress with trains while commoners will wear it only on special occasions such as a wedding.
The elite class will have a much longer train and more elaborately decorated garments at their wedding. The decorations were handmade, mostly embroidery, and usually take a lot of hours of work therefore it will cost a lot. Only the most affluent will be able to afford blown glass beads from France to decorate their garments. The couturier will have to wait months for supplies to arrive.
![wedding gown 2](https://media.fashonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/18064148/dorothea-baird-in-a-wedding-dress-news-photo-1584042408.jpg)
But in the next two decades later, styles started evolving, and the bustle lost its prestige. The A-line cut and princess-seamed dresses started surfacing in the 1900s with much thinner and more fluid materials like the chiffon. Here we see the bride wearing a slimmer dress with softer details.
And two more decades later, Paul Poiret will change the way women dress up forever with a silhouette that will become the precursor of modern fashion.
![](https://media.fashonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/18064937/May-Doherty-on-her-wedding-day-1924-332x640-1.jpg)
By the 1920s, a leaner silhouette became the trend. Wedding gowns in this era have a straight shape and are mostly bias cut without a cut in the waist. Sheath dress, they call it, which falls a few inches above the ankle was the preferred cut. It was a rebellious shift from the overly exaggerated length and weight.
Designers look at fashion in a more vertical line approach than volume. This concept was carried on still many years later as we progressed into the Industrial Age.
Nowadays, we do have a taste of those styles. Some brides still prefer a ball gown with petticoats because it gives an extra uniquity to the event itself. And why not?
If you were to revive a silhouette in the past, what era would you prefer?
By Jonquil Dun
Photo credit: Getty Images
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